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Originally Posted by Nodrog
Intellectual positions need to be self-policing to some degree - every ideology ends up attracting some nutjobs, and if the intelligent people supporting it want it to be taken seriously then they should do their best to distance themselves from the loons.
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I'm not sure it's sensible to have collective responsibility for intellectual positions. Otherwise we'd spend all our time condemning the idiots who might be vaguely on "our side". Sure, I do bother going to the effort of distancing myself from Zhukov as a lefty or you as a libertarian, but does that mean I'm guilty of not properly distancing myself from the people out there who love the Khmer Rogue or what-not? There's clearly a lot of shit that's been written by people who broadly support positions you hold, where is your condemnation of them all? Or is that different?
I certainly see no reason why a scientist writing about climate change should feel the need to condemn people who are clearly insane when it comes to animal rights - anymore that he should feel the need to apologise for slavery of the black man, or the holocaust, or whatever else. Of course, if someone has explicitly said "I really like everything that Joe Bloggs has ever written" and that turns out to include a bunch of stuff about the final solution of the gipsy problem then sure, there's some responsiblity to be clear things up, but I doubt that's how things normally happen.
You seem to be half-admitting this, but isn't this just a rather feeble excuse? I don't like hip-hop. If someone asks me if I've bothered listened to x or y artists (who might represent the better end of the spectrum) I'll say "no but look at Missy Elliot and those other ugly negroes, why would I?" but that's just an excuse because I'm lazy and musically conservative. Aren't you doing the same thing?
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From my personal point of view it doesnt matter whether I'm informed on the subject - its not like my actions will significantly effect the envioroment in the grand scheme of things.
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This isn't very ambitious man. Aren't you planning on being rich? If you became the CEO of GlobalDeath Corp (or even a junior procurement management for a local council) you actually will end up having quite a bit of an impact - although arguably your own personal usage patterns are more important than you're suggesting. Unless you're going to be a hermit or a student-bum I doubt you can safely assume you'll never an impact on the world. If nothing else, think of all the people who have been influenced by your forum posts!